u02a2 Inquiry Process Skills

This past week, two of the resources really contributed to an improved understanding of what inquiry based learning looks like in the classroom. The first was the framework put together by the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.  The framework explains how different skills and content knowledge can be developed using modern-day interdisciplinary themes such as Global Awareness; Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy; Civic Literacy; Environmental Literacy, and Health Literacy.  The P21 skills are broken into 3 categories; Learning and Innovation Skills, Information, Media and Technology Skills, and Life and Career Skills.  The site is loaded with resources to support each of these skill domains, which easily connected to the skills presented in the SCANS report too.  This will be a site that I will be able to refer to regularly for help as I learn to develop inquiry based lessons.

The other resource that actually helped answer one of my questions was the Indicators of Development of Process Skills from the Math & Science Collaborative, Life Science Institute.  The Indicators of Development of Process Skills is a list of questions regarding observable student actions that allow the teacher to answer yes or no.  There are many uses for this list of questions including assessing individual skill development for a single student or whole class.  An answer of “no” would indicate a skill that needs development and would help teachers to plan lessons accordingly, or special education teachers, like me, could use the information to develop IEP goals and objectives.  After I use the information to plan a lesson, I can also assess the lesson using the same list of indicators.  Did the lesson produce the desired set of student outcomes? Were there any unexpected positive or negative results? What changes should I make, or what can I do differently to help students develop these important process skills?

In order to make the Indicators of Development of Process Skills more user-friendly, I put the questions into the table below.

Process Skills	Yes	No
OBSERVING --Do the students:
1. Succeed in identifying obvious differences and similarities between objects and  materials?
2. Make use of several senses in exploring objects or materials?
3. Identify differences of detail among objects or materials?
4. Identify points of similarity among objects where differences are more obvious than    similarities?
5. Use their senses appropriately and extend the range of sight using a hand lens or microscope as necessary?
6. Distinguish from many observations those that are relevant to the problem in hand?
QUESTIONING--Do the students:
1. Readily ask a variety of questions that include investigable and noninvestigable ones?
2. Participate effectively in discussing how their questions can be answered?
3. Recognize the difference between an investigable question and one that cannot be
4. Suggest how answers to questions of various kinds can be found?
5. Generally, in science, ask questions that are potentially investigable?
6. Help in turning their own questions into a form that can be tested?
PLANNING AND INVESTIGATING--Do the students:
1. Start with a useful general approach even if details are lacking or need further thought.
2. Identify the variable that has to be changed and the things that should be kept the same for a fair test?
3. Identify what to look for or what to measure to obtain a result in an investigation?
4. Succeed in planning a fair test using a given framework of questions?
5. Compare their actual procedures after the event with what was planned?
6. Spontaneously structure their plans so that independent, dependent, and controlled variables are identified and steps taken to ensure that the results obtained are as accurate as they can reasonably be?
FORMULATING EXPLANATIONS--Do the students:
1. Attempt to give an explanation that is consistent with evidence, even if only in terms of the presence of certain features or circumstances?
2. Attempt to explain things in terms of a claim based on data from the investigation and previous experience even if they go no further than naming it?
3. Show awareness that there may be more than one explanation that fits the evidence?
4. Give explanations that suggest how an observed effect or situation is brought about and that could be checked?
5. Show awareness that all explanations are tentative and never proved beyond doubt?
MAKING PREDICTIONS--Do the students:
1. Attempt to make a prediction relating to a problem even if it is based on preconceived ideas?
2. Make some use of evidence from experience in making a prediction?
3. Make reasonable predictions based on a possible explanation (hypothesis) without necessarily being able to make the justification explicit?
4. Explain how a prediction that is made relates to a pattern in observations?
5. Use patterns in information or observations to make justified interpolations or extrapolations?
6. Justify a prediction in terms of a pattern in the evidence or an idea that might explain it?
ANALYZING DATA--Do the students:
1. Discuss what they find in relation to their initial questions?
2. Compare their findings with their earlier predictions?
3. Notice associations between changes in one variable and another?
4. Identify patterns or trends in their observations or measurements?
5. Draw conclusions that summarize and are consistent with all the evidence that has been collected?
6. Recognize that any conclusions are tentative and may have to be changed in the light of new evidence?
COMMUNICATING--Do the students:
1. Talk freely about their activities and the ideas they have, with or without making a written record?
2. Listen to others’ ideas and look at their results?
3. Use drawings, writing, models, and paintings to present their ideas and findings?
4. Use tables, graphs, and charts when these are suggested to record and organize results?
5. Regularly and spontaneously use reference books to check or supplement thei investigations?
6. Choose a form for recording or presenting results that is both considered and justified in relation to the type of information and the audience?

Math & Science Collaborative, Life Science Institute, (2011).Adapted from Wynne Harlen, Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Science

 I teach reading, writing, math, science, and social studies to my students, and I see easy fits for inquiry in my science and social studies units, and even for math, but I am having difficulty imagining an inquiry lesson for one of our literature studies.  Perhaps it will be more about using literature as part of the inquiry process for another unit of study.  I am hopeful that the next few weeks will help me put the pieces together.

Math & Science Collaborative, Life Science Institute (2011). Indicators of Development

of Process Skills. Adapted from Wynne Harlen, Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Science. Retrieved from http://msclifescienceinstitute.wikispaces.com/Day+3.

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2007).  Building 21^st century skills.  (Retrieved from         

http://route21.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=2.